Japan exchanges to start CO2 market study session

TOKYO Nov 25 (Reuters) - Tokyo Stock Exchange Inc [TSE.UL] and the Tokyo Commodity Exchange will hold the first meeting of a joint study panel of experts on a carbon trading platform on Thursday, a senior TSE official said.

The two exchanges agreed last month to jointly form a company aimed at setting up a marketplace for emissions allowances including U.N. offsets called certified emission reductions (CERs) as listing of carbon products heats up in Asia. [ID:nSYD542984] [ID:nSP211141]

But Japanese Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama has revealed no further clue beyond his government's plan to introduce a domestic trading system like the EU's, with mandatory volume caps on emitters, resulting in little for the study panel to address for now.

"We're preparing ourselves for when Japan Allowances, like EU Allowances in Europe, are up and running," said Ryoichi Fukuda, a senior officer at the Tokyo bourse's emissions trading & listing department.

"Another thing causing us to pause for now is COP15," he said, referring to U.N. climate change talks in Copenhagen next month aiming to reach a broad agreement over cutting global warming gas emissions beyond 2012, when the first period of the Kyoto Protocol ends.

Currently, the Japanese government as well as companies, which are committed to self-imposed emission cut goals, are major buyers of CERs and other Kyoto-backed carbon rights to offset surplus emissions at home. [ID:nT210495] [ID:nT230592] (Reporting by Risa Maeda; Editing by Michael Watson) ((risa.maeda@thomsonreuters.com; +81 3 6441 1856; Reuters Messaging: risa.maeda.reuters.com@reuters.net)) ((If you have a query or comment on this story, send an email to news.feedback.asia@thomsonreuters.com))